Every seventh person in the world currently uses Windows 10. Microsoft announced in an official press release (via ComputerBase). The operating system runs on one billion PCs in 200 countries worldwide.
Microsoft also announced that more than 17.8 million users are currently participating in the Windows Insider program and that all 500 companies with the highest sales in the USA (Fortune 500) are also using Windows 10.
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1 billion users originally expected for 2018
However, the news of the new user record cannot hide the fact that Microsoft is the brand of a billion PCs with Windows 10 only reached less than two years later
Terry Myerson, then head of the Windows and Devices department, had already announced at the build keynote in April 2015 that multi-device Windows 10 users are expected to reach billions by mid-2018:
However, Microsoft corrected this forecast on July 15, 2016 and announced that it was no longer expected to be able to reach the goal of one billion users by 2018. A company spokesman said at the time ZDNet, when Windows 10 had around 350 million users:
"We are pleased with our progress to date, but by focusing on our phone hardware business, it will take longer than the end of fiscal 2018 to reach our goal of a billion devices active every month."
Accordingly, the disappointing performance of Windows Mobile and Microsoft's later departure from the smartphone market contributed significantly to the company missing the original target for Windows 10. The continued popularity of Windows 7 should also have contributed to the fact that the migration to Windows 10 was slower than expected by the beginning of this year.